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Émile VERHAEREN ! (1855-1916)
La joie
Oh, those sunny days whose mornings are burning!
The fiery and proud land is more superb
and the awakened life is so fragrant
that the whole being becomes grey and leaps towards joy.
Be thanked, my eyes,
for having remained so clear, under my already old forehead,
for seeing the light move in the distance and vibrate;
and you, my hands, for jumping in the sun;
and you, my fingers, for gilding yourself with vermeil
fruits Hanging along the wall, near the hollyhocks.
Be thanked, my body,
for being firm, fast, and quivering,
to the touch of the swift winds or deep breezes;
and you, my right chest and my wide lungs,
for breathing, along the seas or on the mountains,
the radiant and bright air that bathes and bites the worlds,
Oh those mornings of celebration and calm beauty!
Roses whose dew adorns the pure, faces,
Birds that have come to us, like white omens,
Gardens of massive shade or frail light!
At a time when the ample summer is warming the avenues,
I love you, paths, ways, where the
One who received my fate in her hands came to pass;
I love you, far away, swamps and austere woods,
And under my feet, to the depths, I love the earth
Where my dead rest.
I exist in everything that surrounds me and penetrates me.
Thick lawns, lost paths, beech beds, lucid
water that no shadow can tarnish,
You become myself being my memory.
My life, infinitely, in all of you continues,
I form and I become everything that was my dream;
In the vast horizon from which my eye is dazzled,
Trees shivering with gold, you are my pride;
My will, like the knots in your bark,
In the days of firm and healthy work, hardens my strength.
When you touch my forehead, roses of the bright gardens,
real kisses of flame illuminate my flesh;
Everything is caress, ardour, beauty, beauty, thrill, madness,
I am drunk with the world and I multiply
So strong in everything that shines and dazzles
me that my heart is broken and delivered in cries.
Oh these leaps of fervour, deep, powerful and tender
As if some immense wing lifted you up,
If you felt them towards infinity,
Man, do not complain, even in bad times;
Whatever misfortune preys on you,
tell yourself, that one day, in a supreme moment,
you still tasted, with a beating heart,
the sweet and wonderful joy,
and that your soul, hallucinating your eyes
to the point of mixing your being with the unanimous forces,
during this unique day and this sublime hour, made
you like the Gods.
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